San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski making name with clutch goals

San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski (8) tries to break away against Colorado Avalanche's Ruslan Salei (24) in the third period for game 4 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

He's known simply as "Pavs" inside the Sharks' locker room. But to the outside world, Joe Pavelski often gets labeled "Little Joe."

Part of it has to do with his unimposing 5-foot-11 stature. The nickname — and every hockey player seems to be required to have one — also differentiates him from Jumbo Joe Thornton.

Yet there has been nothing small about Pavelski's performance in this wild first-round series against Colorado.

The Sharks and Avalanche head into tonight's Game 5 at HP Pavilion tied at 2-2. Without Pavelski, though, the Sharks might have spent Wednesday cleaning out their lockers and trying to explain how they were swept from the playoffs in embarrassing fashion.

His last-minute goal in Game 2 sent the contest into overtime, where linemate Devin Setoguchi scored the winner. Tuesday night, Pavelski might very well have saved the Sharks' season with his OT wrist shot that gave San Jose a crucial 2-1 victory in Game 4.

And with all of this coming after a strong Olympic effort for silver-medal-winning Team USA, Pavelski is establishing himself as a player who shines when the spotlight is the brightest.

Is it time to start calling him Big Joe?

Just don't expect Pavelski to play along with that lighthearted question. He is one of the quietest Sharks. The next time he calls attention to himself will be the first. He just goes about his business and prefers to let his effort on the ice speak for itself.

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In fact, each time he was asked about his play Wednesday, he responded with an answer about his entire line, which includes Ryane Clowe and has contributed five goals and seven assists against the Avalanche.

"We've just been prepared to work," said the center, who has two goals and two assists in the series. "Whenever we're struggling, we try to get the puck in deep and win a few battles. We've been able to win our share and hang on to the puck in their zone. It's really working for us right now."

That's a good thing for the Sharks, considering Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley continue to come up small without a goal among them. While they might not be invisible — and in fairness to Heatley, he remains troubled by a lower-body injury that kept him out of Game 3 — they haven't played up to expectations.

Last spring, it was a lack of secondary scoring that helped bring down the Sharks in the first-round debacle against Anaheim. That included Pavelski, who only had a single assist in the six-game series.

Before general manager Doug Wilson set about retooling the roster, he held one-on-one meetings with players. In his, Pavelski stopped talking about "we" and began using "I."

"He took responsibility," Wilson recalled. "He's all about 'What I can do to make us better' and 'What I didn't do.' That's how Joe is wired. He's just a hockey rat who wants to play and do his best."

As a group, the Sharks detest being reminded of the Anaheim series. But Pavelski said he learned some lessons.

"It was tough, because if our line had been able to score, we definitely could have changed that series around," he said. "When you're down a goal or two, you can't give up. You have to do anything, like block a shot. There's a lot of little things that go into winning, and you never know when you're going to get that opportunity to make a difference."

He made a difference at the Olympics. Pavelski tallied three assists for Team USA and nearly scored in overtime of the gold-medal game before Sidney Crosby ultimately became the hero for victorious Team Canada.

"He's a Swiss army knife as a hockey player," said Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, who held the same post with Team USA. "He does a whole bunch of things well. You can use him in every conceivable manpower situation — power play, short-handed. And he's over 60 percent on faceoffs."

He also has become a player whom the Sharks want on the ice at the end of a game. Of course that has been hard to predict in this series. All four games were tied after 59 minutes, and three have gone into overtime.

That's where he ended Tuesday's game. Pavelski's sense of timing, by the way, is impeccable considering he is a restricted free agent this summer and in line for a big raise from his current $1.7 million salary.

But that will be settled after the postseason — something that Pavelski is doing his best to extend as long as possible.